Our complete Continuity Piece.
Friday, 31 January 2014
Friday, 24 January 2014
Editing the Continuity Piece
After shooting, we spent many hours editing the
continuity piece. All of our shots were saved on the camera we were using and
imported all the clips into iMovie. We inserted all the clips in order and cut
out any moments that were not necessary for the film. Then we shortened every
clip to keep the piece fast flowing and continuous as this was our main goal in
this project. We decided to desaturize the colours as it made the piece look gloomy. We went on
a website to find uncopyrighted music which was quite a struggle; however we
eventually found a track that would suit the mood of our piece. It was an
upbeat track which suited the theme of our piece. After, we analyzed every
detail of our piece we just tweaked up slightly and decided it was ready to be
uploaded to YouTube.
Friday, 17 January 2014
How We Did it
After we had a short briefing in our Media Studies lesson
we were ready to shoot the continuity piece. We brought along our equipment and
called in our actors. We decided to shoot everything chronologically throughout
the continuity piece because it will give us a better sense of what we needed
to do and will allow us to edit easier as importing the clips into iMovie will
order the piece correctly. We adhered to all our pre-planned instructions and
used all the shots we wanted to do. Filming was easy and placing the cameras in
specific positions proved to be effective through the use of our planning.
After we had filmed, we took photos of the locations we used for future referral when analyzing the film. However, when editing we did realize some part of the continuity piece wasn’t flowing well so we dedicated a whole day to reshooting all the clips that weren’t really flowing.
After we had collected all of our recorded clips, we went to the media suite and uploaded all the clips to iMovie. Whilst doing so we also stabilised the videos to improve its overall quality. Overall, the day went very well and was a success.
After we had filmed, we took photos of the locations we used for future referral when analyzing the film. However, when editing we did realize some part of the continuity piece wasn’t flowing well so we dedicated a whole day to reshooting all the clips that weren’t really flowing.
After we had collected all of our recorded clips, we went to the media suite and uploaded all the clips to iMovie. Whilst doing so we also stabilised the videos to improve its overall quality. Overall, the day went very well and was a success.
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Location Decision
We decided to film our continuity piece indoors as
lighting from the outside can change very quickly and is very unreliable.
Filming indoors will let us film whenever we wanted to as we can keep the
variable factor of lighting constant. We did have limitations when choosing
where to film because the equipment we were using was not insured so we had to
keep the camera in the school premises.
Eventually we decided to film in a very wide corridor on the ground floor of our school. We chose this because barely anyone walks through this corridor which allows us to film in the corridor whenever we wanted o without any hassle. Also, the fact that the corridor is very wide allows us to use our wide shots and long shots effectively as we have the space to position the camera and keep all our characters in one shot. A very good advantage of using the wide corridor in our school was that it will help emphasise the theme of our piece (gritty thriller) because the corridor was slightly gloomy which looked very effective when watching it back.
Eventually we decided to film in a very wide corridor on the ground floor of our school. We chose this because barely anyone walks through this corridor which allows us to film in the corridor whenever we wanted o without any hassle. Also, the fact that the corridor is very wide allows us to use our wide shots and long shots effectively as we have the space to position the camera and keep all our characters in one shot. A very good advantage of using the wide corridor in our school was that it will help emphasise the theme of our piece (gritty thriller) because the corridor was slightly gloomy which looked very effective when watching it back.
Equipment
When filming, we wanted to always carry the camera along
with us and brought along a spare battery just in case we wanted to include any
extra footage. We used a tripod because we wanted all of our shots to be
stationery and not to pan to keep the shots on screen stable and clear for the
audience to see. The advantages of the tripod benefitted us as it meant we were
allowed to film without holding the camera. If we were to film handheld, the
continuity piece would’ve looked very shaky and not help making a fast flowing
piece.
Planning
In order to create the continuity piece, a lot of
planning was necessary because we wanted to know exactly beforehand what we
were going to do to reduce the amount errors which happened on the day of
shooting. However, if something was to go wrong, we have plans to still get our
work done.
Firstly, we made a planning schedule. We both had to
compromise and gave up our free time to plan out how the continuity piece will
pan out. During our meet-ups, we brainstormed different ideas such as all the
camera shots we were going to include. With this, we articulated and managed to
come up with a basic storyline which will adapt into all of our camera shots.
Our base storyline was about two boys delivering a package to another person.
After this we decided on what props to use and equipment. We decided to use a
small black book as ‘the package’ to be delivered as it looked anonymous and
mysterious through the camera which made the effect of uncertainty throughout
the piece.
Shot List
After plenty of discussion, we have succumb to a number of shots we would like to include in our continuity piece.
High-Angle Shot: A high-angle shot is usually when the camera angle is located above the eye line. With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject and the point of focus often gets 'swallowed up' by the setting which makes the figure or subject seem vulnerable or powerless. This makes the movement more dramatic.
Over the Shoulder: An over the shoulder shot is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. This type of shot is used when two characters are having a discussion which helps the audience place the characters in their setting.
Establishing Shot: An establishing shot sets up or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and object. It is generally an extreme-long shot at the beginning of a scene indicating where the remainder of the scene takes place.
Close Up: We
used a close up because we wanted to show the audience cutaways from a more
distant shot to show detail, such as characters’ emotions, or some intricate
activity such as slight movement.
Over the Shoulder: An over the shoulder shot is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. This type of shot is used when two characters are having a discussion which helps the audience place the characters in their setting.
Wide Shot: A wide shot
is a shot made with the camera positioned from the perpendicular angle of the
focal point of the scene to observe the most action in the performance. This
allows the audience to understand, with precise detail, all the main activities
shown on screen.
Medium Shot: A medium shot is a camera angle shot
from a medium distance. The medium is framed from the waist up. It is mainly
used for a scene when it is desirable to see the subjects' facial expressions
in the context of their body language.
Long Shot: A long shot shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings. It is similar to a wide shot as it requires the use of a wide-angle lens.
Long Shot: A long shot shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings. It is similar to a wide shot as it requires the use of a wide-angle lens.
Establishing Shot: An establishing shot sets up or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and object. It is generally an extreme-long shot at the beginning of a scene indicating where the remainder of the scene takes place.
What We Want To Achieve
What we want
to achieve from this preliminary task is to create a 30 second continuity
piece. By making this continuity piece we will allow the audience to get grips
with how we can use camera to show a fast but fluent piece of film with
different camera shots. The procedure of
making the continuity piece includes shooting the film and editing what we have
filmed. The way we will do this is by going through pre production. This
includes planning the storyline of the continuity piece, brainstorming what
things we will need for the piece e.g. costumes and props. Also we devised a
list of camera shots we will like to use for the continuity piece.
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Getting Familiar With the Equipment
It was announced today that we were going to be shooting our Continuity Piece tomorrow. In order to be prepared for this task, Mr McManus kindly introduced us to the equipment that were available to us. He explained, in detail, what all the pieces of equipment can do, how to function them and their pros and cons. The shoulder rig caught our attention, so we decided to test that out when we were given permission to roam around the school and test out the equipment.
What we wanted to take out from this experience was to get grips with how we can use this equipment with full effect. We found the camera quite cool, it displayed everything in great quality. It was very easy to get used to. We attached it to the shoulder rig and experimented how we can use it to our advantage. We did not have much luck with it as it limited us to only a few different shot types although it was very easy to manoeuvre. We created our own shot where we filmed a person simply walking around a corner and recorded the motion in a full 90 degrees transition, it looked good when watching it back.
We eventually realised that the shoulder rig wasn't the best of choices we were given so we decided just to film outdoors with the camera handheld. We practiced a few shots such as a wide shot of the school, an over the shoulder shot of two of our actors having a conversation and a close up. We had much more success using the camera handheld rather than the shoulder rig but it wasn't stable when watching it on screen as it was sensitive to movement. More stability is required, we discussed about how using a tripod will be much more useful for our future endeavours.
What we wanted to take out from this experience was to get grips with how we can use this equipment with full effect. We found the camera quite cool, it displayed everything in great quality. It was very easy to get used to. We attached it to the shoulder rig and experimented how we can use it to our advantage. We did not have much luck with it as it limited us to only a few different shot types although it was very easy to manoeuvre. We created our own shot where we filmed a person simply walking around a corner and recorded the motion in a full 90 degrees transition, it looked good when watching it back.
We eventually realised that the shoulder rig wasn't the best of choices we were given so we decided just to film outdoors with the camera handheld. We practiced a few shots such as a wide shot of the school, an over the shoulder shot of two of our actors having a conversation and a close up. We had much more success using the camera handheld rather than the shoulder rig but it wasn't stable when watching it on screen as it was sensitive to movement. More stability is required, we discussed about how using a tripod will be much more useful for our future endeavours.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Introduction to the Blog
Introduction
Hello. Welcome to our new blog. This blog has been created for the purpose of updating you with memos regarding the activities we engage in throughout our AS Media Studies course. These entries will come in the form of journals and will be consistent as we have six lessons of Media Studies every week.
More About Us
Our names are Mortada Al Saedi and Sammid Ullah, both aged 16. We both are students at Westminster City School studying for our A-levels, one of which being Media Studies. We both chose to work together because we believe our ideas are very good and both have useful input we will like to contribute when making our continuity piece, short film opening and this blog.
How This Blog Will Work
After we report for our Media Studies lessons, we will be assigned with some work to do which is when we will write entries onto this blog. The most likely content would be what we've been doing in our lessons and what we learned. This will be things such as us writing about our experiences such as making a short film, planning it out etc.
Hello. Welcome to our new blog. This blog has been created for the purpose of updating you with memos regarding the activities we engage in throughout our AS Media Studies course. These entries will come in the form of journals and will be consistent as we have six lessons of Media Studies every week.
More About Us
Our names are Mortada Al Saedi and Sammid Ullah, both aged 16. We both are students at Westminster City School studying for our A-levels, one of which being Media Studies. We both chose to work together because we believe our ideas are very good and both have useful input we will like to contribute when making our continuity piece, short film opening and this blog.
How This Blog Will Work
After we report for our Media Studies lessons, we will be assigned with some work to do which is when we will write entries onto this blog. The most likely content would be what we've been doing in our lessons and what we learned. This will be things such as us writing about our experiences such as making a short film, planning it out etc.
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